Equipment problems galore in set one and two. A sub par show (C-)- except for post Drums.
Miracle is good, but you are here for the Death Don't Have No Mercy. It's good. Real good. Not amazing though. Still, a nice moment.

I sang a little while and then flew on.

The Band Played A Good Show As Tectonic Plates Beneath The Earth Under Their Feet Began To Strain With The Pressure That Would Release With Catastrophic Results In The Very Near Future. You Can Almost Hear The Stress In The Show. Opposite Forces Grinding Against Each Other. Garcia's Melodic Riffs Countered By Artificial And Soulless Midi Ramblings. Jerry's And Brent's Voice Sound Like They've Been Breathing Apocalyptic Dust. With Brent Steadily Making The Turn Into The Madness That Accompanied His Illness. Mickey Sounding As If He Were Playing Against Billy Instead Of With Him. His Drumming At This Point Became Increasingly Too Loud In The Mix, Almost Violent And Counter Productive In The Organic Flow Of The Band. Even Bobby With His Almost Trite Vocal Delivery And Stage Presence Countered Phil's Flowing And Seemingly Effortless Bottom And Background Vocals. The Band Seemed To Unknowingly Transmit The Earth Energy Building Below The Surface. Me Thinks.

I was at this historic show with the breakout of DDHNM and from what I recall at the time was that there was an apparent stabbing that occurred in the Orchestra section during the first few songs of the second set , which was witnessed by the "Boys" on stage. Hence the 5 minute break before resuming the rest of the set.

When the band came home to Shoreline, they were always very relaxed and kicked back. Some times this could hurt the music, but most often not.
This run was also the precursor to the monumental east coast fall tour that would follow.
This first set is an excellent example of the band being in no rush, and exploring the songs with slower tempos, but full of illuminating details and nuances.
You get no over the top moments until Stuck Inside Mobile when the band totally flourishes. The remaining end of the set is excellent with a warm We Can Run into a midi laced Bird Song that maybe be one of the best of the Dead's latter career and a full throttle Promised Land to end it.
Set two is confident and Jerry, as well a Phil, shine. A Nice China> Rider gets things rollin, with the only blemish of the night Bobby jumps into his verse before Jerry wanted to ;)
Blow Away is great, not too over the top as Brent mellows on the profanities.
The PITB is very good with Jerry fully enjoying his Midi rig and creating some wild moments sonically. A deep and rich Terrapin, this combo was becoming more the rare by this time, into a deep drums and an intense Bob Bralove set.
Out of space you get a raunchy Miracle into an EPIC DDHNM.
Jerry, Bob, and Brent all share a verse but honestly Jerry completely unleashes during his solo.
It is breath taking, powerful, searing, and full of intense emotions that is monumental peak that must have pleased all in attendance.
The Sugar Magnolia, Brent unleashes, and Quinn cap off a wonderful night of music.

Whoa, where to start, perhaps with the miracle ticket I received right before showtime,I gave the sweet girl a kiss on her cheek jumped up and down a bit and went in, then as I walked thru the front entrance the checkers missed me, I offered my ticket no takers, so I glanced up at security who just shrugged it off and I was in, then I went to the left and passed that miracle ticket out the slatted chain-link fence to two of the happiest unseen fingers of a fellow Deadhead-2 of us got in on that miracle!!! It paid to remain as the single very last person of the miracle-seekers at the pack where you went into the rope line. Out of the 35 shows I attended, this Friday nite opener at "Dead at the Dump" famed impressario Bill Graham's Shoreline Ampitheatre was one of the few nites I did not have tickets and I scored a double-miracle. Jerry used the Force to make sure the ticketcheckers missed me and got one more Happy Camper into the WHOLE SHOW GLOW, yes I said it, the whole show glow- this was the the heart of 89-90 Dead being born before our eyes, Of this world it was born. Dead Ahead into the seas of glory, the ship began to sail, it appeared Brent was holding back just a bit on his singing this night to really let the Captain Trips shine. Needless to say our Shining Star was "On" this night, everywhere people were sensing a Dead air rising up to paradise, ascending to envelope all in its cryptical night of knights. After the just exactly perfect 1st set to warm up our positrons for take-off needed because sources such as exploding stars can pump out plenty of high-energy electrons, whereas the rarefied high-energy positrons typically arise less frequently. 2nd set soared out and sublimely overtook us, it was more, that even a more experienced Deadhead could have been anticipating! Suddenly parallel multiverses and universes and some more multiverses appeared, slowly a tractor beam arose, as all began to shift, to align, to allow all intrepid travelors of space time, to sway, to stand, to begin moving their feet, we really Had to dance. I felt something brush up against my shoulder... as throngs of thrusting, wildly flying bats were seen to "done come in for sum"!! After a set break China Cat started us off ebbing and flowing, the Golden Tones drawing us in, then into a smoking Rider, listen to Jerry wailing, I wish I was a headlight, around the 2:50 mark then, after Brent graced our presence with Blow Away, only the 3rd song of the 2nd set, The Grateful Dead went into another break????, hmmmm whats going on??? Whats up??? (Baby, who's to say, it coulda been different now that it's done. Baby who's to sayy), at the end of Blow Away Brent yells out hold it! After 5:20 minute 2nd break(midi plug-in) -Playing in the Band erupted!! (One of my earliest fave songs of the Dead) Those perma smiles were glowing now as Jerry's leadsjust melted down off his fretboard upon us! Hey Now! Even our fuzzy little batheads were now dancing and scurrying about! Then as Playing flowed into time immortal, on into the opening strains of, of, of, could it be, could it be, yes! TERRAPIN!!! Looking around the glow glew and grew and grew. I wondered how I would ever remember this night for posterity of Deadheads to follow. As Terrapin poured into drums bodies began flying about, up and down, around,and around, into the air, it was all we could do to keep our feet floating back down to terra firma at times, I pulled back the sleeve of my tye-died shirt to pop out a can of spinach and snorted it up instantly to fuel the pulsing,thrusting, surging, twisting, tripping, dancing enough to sustain Full Blastoff! Space your face! 970 feet tall image-atron screens were bandied about filling our eyes and souls, shining Jerrys mountainous starry face forth, peering at each of us at once, in space the sounds of Jerrys "mighty midi" trumpet filled our heads with trumpetering , amazing zing zing, then no way! Jerry starts playing I need a miracle! Furthur PROOF JERRYPOWER was definately why I had received that magical Double Miracle Ticket, still the highlight of all time was about to hit- let me quote another Deadheads words for the Death Don't Have No Mercy that we were about to experience(-Jerry's solo is one of the great moments not only in Dead history, but in all of rock. he is playing in Hendrix territory here.), pardon me for quoting but so many in attendance testify that the Death Don't was the best ever, by the best ever. The opening 3 notes of Death Don't have remained with me forever, on guitar, on the low E string its open-2-3 Jerry "got" us all that night fer sure. A dancing hopping Sugar Magnolia capped the 2nd set there was a completeness felt, Jerry encored a nice Quinn, and after the show, nobody walked to the Lot, we all just floated along to VW-ville. Now with these words I tell my tale of my "best ever" for the best ever, for you.

show is that Brent is really on. Not in an excessive, cranked up, screamy kind of way either: he's singing totally mellow, but his energy is really strong and his playing is super. It reminds me of when I saw them at this venue earlier this year, when I was very close to his side and could feel the wind from his Leslies as they cranked up at the beginning of his solos. Hearing "We Can Run" still gives me chills.
I'm not sure why the 5+ minutes of dead air after Blow Away was preserved, as the same effect could be achieved by turning my player off for 5 minutes, but I admit that's a minor gripe. What I can't stand are those horrible tone-fatiguing MIDI synths that Garcia was using at the time. How was anybody ever fooled into thinking those sounded like any kind of real instrument (or any good at all, in any way)?

This one is highly recommended. Besides sounding really good, the band is killing it tonite. The setlist is about good as it gets for catching a show.
Versions of Memphis Blues, Bird Song, Death Don't...will satisfy pretty much any Head. Very Nice.